HMEIMIM AIRBASE, SYRIA — The Sukhoi fighter aircraft punched through the clouds, its growl echoing over Russia’s Hmeimim Airbase on Syria’s coast. Abu Zaid, a bearded militant with the Syrian rebel group Hayat Tahrir al Sham, cocked his ear toward the roar.

The rapid downfall of Syrian leader Bashar Assad has touched off a new round of delicate geopolitical maneuvering between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Moscow achieved its goals in Syria, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed during his annual press conference and a call-in program on Dec. 19. following the collapse of dictator Bashar al-Assad's regime. Commenting on the fall of Assad's regime for the first time, Putin said Russia invaded Syria to prevent the creation of "a terrorist enclave."

Syria's former President Bashar al-Assad is in Moscow with his family after Russia granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds, a Kremlin source told Russian news agencies on Sunday, and a deal has been done to ensure the safety of Russian military bases.

The Syrian regime’s collapse came more quickly than the rebels had dreamed — the circumstances were both serendipitous and part of a larger global realignment.

For much of the past decade, Assad’s regime, bolstered by unwavering support from Iran and Russia, brutally suppressed dissent. What began as an uprising in 2011 evolved into a devastating civil war that eventually settled into an uneasy stalemate.

The sudden collapse of the long-established Assad family dictatorship in Syria changes the balance and constellation of competing forces in the Middle East. For many years, the Syrian government has been a client of Russia, and before that the Soviet Union. Turkey has also intervened, mainly in pursuit of the Kurd minority regarded as dangerous.

As per reports, Asma al-Assad has expressed “dissatisfaction” with their life in Russia's Moscow, where they are living after Bashar al-Assad's ouster.

The British wife of Syria's ousted president Bashar al-Assad has filed for divorce after expressing dissatisfaction with her life in Moscow.

Losing Syrian military bases would hurt the Kremlin’s attempts to project power in the Middle East and Africa.